Black Renaissance: Body, Mind and Spirit

VINYL FORMAT. Harry Whitaker is a piano player, producer and arranger who on Martin Luther King Day in 1976, at the age of twenty-six, recorded Black Renaissance's Body, Mind and Spirit, a holy grail amongst collectors of soul-jazz and rare groove. So rare, it was virtually a myth to many collectors and music aficionados. Made up of two long tracks that periodically build and release for forty minutes over two sides of an LP, it's an improvised masterpiece combining Afro-centric spiritual soul, jazz, poetry, amazing solos, a tasty bass line or two and more than a fair share of funky beats. It's also one of the earliest albums to feature rapping. Harry Whitaker cut his teeth on the best of the Roy Ayers Ubiquity releases (including playing keys on "We Live in Brooklyn Baby" and co-producing the Coffy OST) and making a living working closely with Roberta Flack as her musical director, even playing on her big Eugene McDaniels' written hit "I Feel Like Makin' Love." Black Renaissance's Body, Mind and Spirit was his first attempt at a project where he wrote and composed the music and played keys on all tracks. This album features Woody Shaw, Azar Lawrence, Buster Williams, Billy Hart and Mtume amongst others, and the liner notes (and album insert) explain how this album almost never saw the light of day.